In August, officers in Oconee County pulled over a white Volvo in what appeared to be a routine traffic stop for a defective brake light.

The stop was anything but routine. Deputies discovered 5.3 pounds of methamphetamine near the passenger door of the car, making it one of the county's largest drug seizures.

The traffic stop was made about 400 feet away from I-85, and it may not have been a coincidence. The interstate serves as a pipeline for meth to travel into South Carolina. Large quantities of the drug regularly make their way into the Upstate, tucked away in secret compartments of cars or stashed in trucks.

Most of the meth in the Southeast originates in Mexico and is smuggled across the border, said Robert Evans, a Drug Enforcement Agency agent and spokesman based in Atlanta.

"They cross the border any way they can and use the roads," he said. "It's the easiest way to get the dope here."

Meth is the biggest contributor to crime in the Upstate, according to sheriffs in Greenville, Pickens, Anderson and Oconee counties. More and more, law enforcement agencies are dedicating extra resources to fight an addictive drug that ruins lives and ravages communities.

Image of smuggled methamphetamine. Provided by the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.(Photo: Contributed)

How meth gets here

Organized Mexican crime organizations transport meth — often in hidden compartments of vehicles — into the United States using their own members or sub-organizations, according to the DEA's latest report on the drug.

After meth comes into the country, vehicles transport it to what authorities consider a "hub" city. The biggest hub for the Southeast, including the Upstate, is Atlanta, according to local authorities and the DEA assessment.

From Atlanta, meth comes into South Carolina in two paths: One is straight to the Upstate via Interstate 85, and the other is through Columbia and Charleston, where significant drug cartel activity has been noted by the DEA. The Jalisco Nueva Generacion Los Cuinis drug cartel faction has operations in those two cities, according to the latest DEA drug threat assessment. Evans said cartels have operations in almost all major cities.

"Sometimes we'll see more (drug activity) in Greenville than Charleston," he said. "Meth is a major threat in South Carolina right now."

The DEA looks to local agencies and officers who deal with drugs as well as national trends and data when creating threat assessments, Evans said.

Atlanta is listed as a hub for at least five cartels. Charlotte is listed as a hub for the Sinaloa cartel. Greenville is not listed as a major area for the cartels, according to the DEA study.

Meth is cheap and easy to access

Not too long ago, homemade methamphetamine concocted through the "shake and bake" method, which uses common ingredients mixed together in a soda bottle, was the biggest issue for law enforcement.

South Carolina had the second-highest number of clandestine meth labs reported in the nation in 2016, according to the most recent annual DEA threat assessment report. The federal numbers come from data that is reported by each state and each state can use different criteria for what makes up a meth lab.

Meth is now so common and readily available that local meth cooks have been largely pushed aside by the Mexican meth, according to local and federal law enforcement agencies.

The State Law Enforcement Division noted successes in breaking up labs as well as the national trend of moving away from small operations from the summer of 2016 to last summer.

"We have been seeing a significant drop in the number of local labs in the Upstate during the same time period due to the ready availability and lower cost for methamphetamine from out of the country," said Major Frank O'Neal, who leads SLED's narcotics division.

Greenville County officials found less than 20 labs in the county in a one-year period spanning 2016-17. That's seven times fewer than in the same period four years ago.

Despite a crash in the number of local labs, officers have not seen any shortage of meth in the streets, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said.

Meth is now so cheap that undercover officers have to buy in larger quantities because many dealers won't bother selling small quantities, said Sgt. Ryan Flood of the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.

Image of drugs seized by the Pickens County Sheriff's Office.(Photo: Contributed)

Mexican meth is a more potent drug than the homemade product, even though a recent crackdown on precursor chemicals has reduced the potency of the Mexican meth, Evans, the DEA agent, said. The imported meth is also cheaper than the "shake and bake" method.

Experts say meth in the Upstate is half the price it was a few years ago, making it easier to obtain. The price of an ounce of meth, which can last a few days for a heavy user, typically cost undercover sources around $500 to $600, with significant fluctuations in price for quality and depending on who the buyer knows, according to the Greenville County Sheriff's Office.

That's a lot cheaper than the $1,000 to $1,500 per ounce price of only a few years ago, but it still leaves addicts and users with the need to steal, scam, and scrape together money to keep up the habit.

Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw said his deputies spend the bulk of their time dealing with issues related to meth. The drug fuels a bulk of property and drug crimes in the Upstate, according to local law enforcement.

In January, Clark announced the arrests of a dozen individuals stemming from a monthslong undercover operation in Pickens County targeting high-level meth dealers. Clark knows that arrests won't totally solve the problem because addiction in the community is so prevalent. Researchers are studying a new treatment for methamphetamine addiction and recruiting participants in Pickens County because each year several hundred people there are seeking treatment for meth addiction, said Elizabeth Chapman, who is coordinating the research through Behavioral Health Services of Pickens County.

The reduction in local meth labs has left a big market hole for meth to move in, Clark said. Until more is done to reduce demand through treatment and outreach, it will likely continue to cause problems, he said.

"There is so much supply right now," said Capt. Chad Brooks, who leads drug investigations in Clark's Pickens County Sheriff's Office. "I've never seen it like this in my whole career. People who used to be gram dealers are now selling ounces and pounds. Educating people, that's a big thing, that's something we can do to stop the demand. Without stopping the demand, we'll never get it stopped. Meth is such a nasty drug. It's so hard to break out of, we just need people to not try it at all."